Zoners to review retail site proposal

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, February 10, 2005

Westrock, based in Yonkers, N.Y. wants to build three retail buildings totaling 112,500 square feet on a 189 Danbury Road site bounded on the north by Cedar Knolls Road, a property which formerly held a small retail plaza and car wash and is zoned for commercial development.

"I think it will be a benefit to the town if it's done right," said town councilman
Frank Wargo
, who owns the property to the south.

He told zoners Tuesday, however, his property floods if the water from the site is unable to drain to the west under Route 7. He's also concerned about the possibility of holding lanes extending beyond the property line and interfering with his driveway access.

At a hearing last month, Cedar Knolls residents said they were worried about noise, truck traffic, the loss of property values, flooding of their properties, pollution of their wells and clear-cutting of the existing buffer to their neighborhood. They continued to object to the proposal this week.

At a continued hearing Tuesday, representatives of the developer said they had adjusted landscaping, storm water management and fencing plans in response to objections raised by neighbors.

Zoning Commission chairman
George Doring
said the commission has also hired an independent consultant,
Jim MacBroom
of
Milone MacBroom
, to review the storm-water management plan. The consultant is expected to report to the commission when the hearing is continued Feb. 22.

Russ Posthauer
of CCA, the engineer for the project, said he and landscape architect
Roderick Cameron
have revised the landscaping plan to reduce intrusion into the existing buffer on the east boundary.

Mr. Cameron said 65 percent of the natural existing buffer will remain and additional plantings, including shrubs, Norway spruce and flowering dogwoods, would fill in cleared areas to offer additional screening. Hemlocks and canopy tress would be be added along the fence perimeter.

Westrock has increased the height of the proposed fence from eight feet to a 10-foot stockade fence on a two-foot berm along the driveway to better screen the loading areas and compactors.

Mr. Posthauer has also revised the drainage plan, which he said would offer more storage of water on the property and would lessen the water leaving the site at the property line.

Zoners, however, grilled Mr. Posthauer about the water table on the property, which has been filled in by former owners.

"We don't want to see what was wet there become wet next door," said zoner Brooks Temple.

Jeff Sienkiewicz
told zoners Westrock has the right to repair and use Cedar Knolls Road, but
David Cole
, a principal in the association that owns the road, said there are questions regarding usage that need to be resolved before zoners make a decision.

"I would appreciate if your lawyer can settle it with their lawyer before we have to pay our lawyer," Mr. Doring told Mr. Cole.

Residents Kevin Moore
and Mladen Vujinic, who own Pine Lane properties to the east of the Westrock site, are concerned that fill being added to the site during development would cause flooding in yards on Pine Lane.

Mr. Moore provided zoners with photos showing the site was once a swamp before it was filled.

He asked how the developer could make predictions about traffic, deliveries and noise levels when the tenants are unknown, and he expressed concerns about pollution to the aquifer under the site, as well as loss of property values.

Mr. Vujinic urged the existing natural buffer remain untouched, that dumpsters remain in buildings and said the backs of buildings should not face the residential properties.